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Well last time we updated we were leaving Ushuaia and it seems like forever ago! The 16 hour bus ride was really not so bad, broken up by a border crossing involving getting out of the bus to get our passports stamped to leave Argentina, getting back into the bus, driving 20 minutes to the Chile checkpoint and then getting out again to get stamped into Chile…what was in between I ask you?? We were also entertained by snacks, a strange mixture of Aerosmith and Enrique Iglesias video clips and the acting genius of Jason Statham in something called Transporter 3. Before we knew it we were in Puerto Natales, Chile! For a bit of background, Puerto Natales is mostly famous for its vicinity to Torres del Paine National Park, the most popular park in Chile. Apart from that the town is pretty dead - more stray dogs than people most days! In terms of the park, our aim was to hike what is referred to as the W - a trek visiting many of the highlights of the park named for it's vague W shape on the map. However this involved camping for four nights so we spent the nest day, simply renting camping equipment and buying food. We rented a tent from the guy who owned our hostel (by the way, on our hostel - big bed and room to ourselves = good. Death trap heater which could have easily blown us up = bad. Free internet = good, angry Chilean couple arguing next door at 4 am = bad!!! Ryan slept through it of course! :P) We even attended a talk on trekking in the park at another hostel in town called Erratic Rock which was super useful.
House of Paine - Day 1
We felt very prepared the next day when we rose at 6.30 am for the two hour bus ride to the park. Our packs were even waterproofed on the inside with garbage bags. The journey was notable for the amount of wildlife we saw - guanacos (related to the llama but cuter and smaller with long necks) and rheas (relatives of the emu!! But also smaller J) After paying our entrance fee we drove on to our starting point of Lake Pehoe. Before we could start our trek we had to take a small catamaran across the lake to Refugio Grey. After arriving on the other side we strapped on our rather heavy packs and headed up the valley. (On a quick side note, the park itself covers an area of some 250,000 hectares, was made a National Park in 1959 and is a draw card for adventure tourism in Chile, attracting intrepid hikers from all over the world. One of the most notable effects of this is the prevalence of English speakers within the park - you are much more likely to be greeted with a 'Hi' or 'Hello' than an 'Hola' or 'Buen Dia'. This became apparent, almost immediately as we began our trek). The mountains above us were gorgeous but we were fairly focused on our uphill climb. We were soon to be rewarded however - as walked over the crest of a hill , we had an amazing view of the Lago Grey, with autumn trees surrounding it (one of the best things about Patagonia this time of year- stunning deciduous trees turning red and yellow) and in the lake - ICEBERGS! Well we knew there was glacier at the end of this lake but we still couldn't believe our eyes - obviously neither of us had seen anything like this and the ice was so blue! Definitely an encouragement to push on! And within 20 minutes we saw our first glimpse of the glacier- incredibly huge and a beautiful formation. For me, despite the scenery, the next couple of hours before we reached our first camp site were among the hardest probably because it was our first day and my pack was full of food! However we did reach our camp eventually and set up our camp on the edge of the lago. Before settling in for the night, we walked as far out as we could on the mainland towards the glacier- still pretty far but amazing to see anyway. Glaciers are now Ryan's new favourite natural wonder :P
Day 2
We awoke early the next morning, had a delicious energy filled breakfast of porridge with dulce de leche and dried fruits, and readied ourselves to go back the way we had came the previous day (a common necessity on the 'W', we will put up a map to try and explain better). After appreciating the scenery from a different angle we made a pit stop for lunch in the camping area from where we had started out the previous day. This gave us a little time to recharge our batteries and refill our water bottles (one of the really great things about the park is that the water is completely clean and drinkable - a rare thing these days!) before hiking another 9kms to our second campsite, Campamento Italiano. The scenery along the way was again beautiful, but we were both happy when we sited camp. From there we set up our gear, had dinner and called it a night.
Day 3
The next morning, we had the opportunity to leave our gear at Italiano and complete the middle section of the 'W' without the burden of our full packs. The camp itself is situated alongside a great river, which we followed upstream along the contours of a valley, Valle de Frances, for the day's first section of hiking. Eventually, the densely forested area of our campsite gave way to vast hillside, comprised of rocks, boulders and scree which made the walk a little more difficult, but we progressed quite easily up the side of a hill carrying just our daypacks. When we reached about 300mts above sea level, we had clear site of Cerro Paine Grande, at the base of which was a large glacier (Glacier del Frances), feeding the river (Rio de Frances) which ran down to our campsite a few kilometers below. We then pushed on for about another 45 minutes to a point which gave us a clear view of the mountain peaks on either side of Valle de Frances, before turning back to Italiano. From here, we packed up our camp and set out to our next base, Campamento Los Cuernos.
Just after leaving camp, we noticed that it had become quite windy, and as we progressed further, the wind turned into strong gusty gales, blowing us about and causing us to easily lose our footing with such heavy packs. (At one point we had a mini-emergency, with Hayley quite badly scraping her knee - but all is okay J). Added to this was the fact that the powerful winds were regularly blowing small, but sharp and hard pieces of ice all the way down from frozen mountaintops, causing us to rush to cover in tree lined areas where possible. These conditions were not a surprise to us, however, as we had been warned about the ferocity of temperamental Patagonian weather, where winds of over 100km p/hr are not uncommon.
The conditions continued like this for some time, as our path took us above, and along the shores of Lago Nordenskjold, seemingly the source of the tempest. We followed the rises and falls of depressions in the trail, mostly having to walk through and along steep creek beds. Eventually, however, we reached camp after around 7kms of hiking and began to make camp for the night. We chose a spot that seemed to be sheltered, put up our tent, and secured its sides with some enormous rocks to prevent any winds from damaging our quarters for the night. This proved somewhat futile, as while we were preparing dinner, a massive gust of wind cast our tent, rocks and all, into a nearby bush. Somewhat taken aback, we made a quick decision to relocate to an even more protected area amongst some trees, continued cooking our dinner, and piled into our tent to retire from possibly our most trying (and tiring!) day on the trail yet.
Day 4
We awoke the next morning to clear skies and relatively calm winds, having slept well. What had seemed like rain the previous night, we realized had just been spray from the lake hitting our tent, despite the fact that the lake itself was some meters away from our campsite! We quickly packed up and moved on just before nine (not before shaking our fists at the weak "campers" staying in the warm refugio/cabanas!) to begin the longest leg of our trek yet. We hiked for some 11kms to just before the ultimate refugio on the trail (somehow we managed to detour through a field of cows including one with half a face- yes it's as disgusting as it sounds!), Hosteria Los Torres, which is situated at the bottom of Valle Ascensio. We weren't to stay here for the night, however; we had a lot more walking to do. From the bottom of the valley, we turned our gaze upwards, and commenced the last really challenging part of our hike. We powered up with our packs some 750mts above sea level (from where the views of the park were incredible) The detour had caused us some confusion however and as we hiked the incredibly steep hill, Hayley was convinced the hardest part was yet to come (I meanwhile discovered that it is quite difficult to convince someone that they are over 500mts above sea level!). We were quite relieved then when we came to a crest and saw Campamento Chileno in the valley way below us, signifying the worst was over. This site itself was closed down for the season, however there were still a few campers staying here in tents - it was a really great setting at a plateau in the valley and even had wind power! (see photos). Here we had another quick energy break of some chocolate to push us on the next 5kms to our campsite for the night, Campamento Los Torres. We got into camp around 5pm (the cutest camp ground, with a little teepee-like building for the ranger on duty to stay in!), quite exhausted after having walked around 20kms (our longest day) with a lot of uphill. Of course we were eager for some dinner but when we pulled out our trusty camp stove, it was in about a billion pieces! However Ryan came to the rescue and put it back together!! And it worked!! We have now declared him an expert woodsmen and boy genius. Hayley was very grateful for her pasta that night. We had a pretty early night here, as we had big plans for the next day.
Day 5
After a freezing night, at our highest camp yet, I (Hayley now!) awoke at 4.40 am and made a game plan- put on every item of clothing I have with me, attempt to wake Ryan and face the chilling concept of leaving the sleeping bag and the tent. The reason for this craziness was we wanted to hike the hour further to the look out to the famous Torres (the towers of jagged rock which are the centerpiece of this park) arrive while it was still dark and see the sun rising over them which we had heard creates some beautiful colours on the rock. So we crept through the camp site with our head lamps (BEST purchase for this trip, literally wouldn't have survived without them, I don't care if I sound like a camping nerd.) and though we heard some stirrings were the first to hit the trail to view the spectacle. As we followed the bits of reflective tape marking the path we stopped for a second to look up. In one of the least inhabited regions of the world, you can imagine how bright the stars were. We felt like we could literally see every star in the galaxy- amazing. Now as we walked and occasionally stumbled we began to get an idea that this was quite a steep path. We struggled a little and at one point two determined American guys passed us on the way up. However we had little sense of our surroundings as it was only just becoming light and after an hour we climbed over a large boulder and there was the sign indicating "Fin de Sendero" - end of the trail. A small lake lay below us and right there were the three Torres del Paine- Norte, Central and Sur. Now it was time to play the waiting game. We found a nook where we were sheltered from the wind and put on every item of warm weather gear we owned- scarves, gloves, hats, hoods etc, cause it was FRIO!! The two Americans had been joined by two more friends (one of whom insisted on doing push ups on the rocks and apparently after we left jumped in the sub zero degrees lake in his boxers - bloody crazy arrogant American frat boys) and below we noticed some French men had also joined us, celebrating their strenuous hike with a cigarette! Occasionally we looked behind us to the incredibly pink sun rise in the valley directly behind us. Now it must be explained that sometimes if you choose to do this expedition in autumn or winter you can find yourself staring at nothing but a wall of cloud, your view of the mountain completely obscured. However on this day, the view was almost completely clear, with only a wisp of cloud covering the tip of the Torre Sur- beautiful! Our weather luck had been excellent the whole trek in fact. Apart from the apparently "normal" gale force winds we only had a little drizzle on night 2/morning 3- who says you can't trek Patagonia out of high season!! After about 40 minutes, the rock began to turn shades of pink and gradually became completely illuminated yellow. This was made even more beautiful by the presence of a reflection in the lake below. Unbelievably, this colour and light show lasted only about 15 minutes and before we knew it the Torres were back to their regular grey granite colour and a cloud began to come across- this was our signal to begin the walk back down, having seen something truly amazing and only possible because of our determination to rise at such a crazy hour. As we trekked back down to camp, we passed many people who had got up too late or timed their walk wrong and completely missed the best part of the morning. Ha! Speaking of the walk back down, now that it was light we realized just how steep the walk had been. It was literally straight up in places and we decided it was probably best that we had hiked up in the dark cause if we had of seen that path in the day light we probably would have given in and turned back!! Back at camp it was time to have a quick brekkie and pack up camp, like many other mornings managing to get organized and out of there before most other groups (not that it's a competition or anything!) We stopped again at Campamento Chileno to continue the process of finishing off the last of our camp food- we bought almost the perfect amount of food much to our delight (meant we weren't starving but also weren't carrying unnecessary weight) but were determined to leave the park with literally nothing (not that it's a competition of anything!!) As we continued on the trail we saw up ahead some horses- not one but 4, being lead by a Chilean gaucho (cowboy) who looked strangely like Che Guevara due to his classic gaucho beret. The horses were carrying gas bottles and other supplies for the camp sites and rangers cabins. Then we saw ANOTHER chileno gaucho this time with 3 horses, all saddled up and ready for riding, which we think must be used to shuttle rangers on duty back and forward between the main hosteria and the further out camp sites. The up hill we had struggled up the day before was today a steep downhill, not so great on the feet after 4 days of hiking! But we made it eventually and dragged our very tired selves into the final Hosteria (incredibly fancy and expensive looking, complete with 5-star restaurant and spa!) and a bus back to town at about 2.00 pm. After indulging in one of the best dinners of our lives in a vegetarian restaurant back in Puerto Natales, we returned all our rentals, packed up our gear, and collapsed into bed, ready for our early morning bus ride back into Argentina to the town of El Calafate.
Change of Plans…
We awoke and caught the bus at 7:30 the next morning to El Calafate, which was a relatively short 5 and a half hours and involved the usual border crossing ritual described earlier. Interestingly, when exiting Chile, before leaving the guard post, I (Ryan) was randomly singled out and diverted to a window for a quick questionnaire on whether I had any symptoms of avian flu… why me I ask you!! Perhaps it was the patchy facial hair, which has a tendency to make me look like a sick dog. After playing along with a quick si, no, no, si, I left the booth to jump back on the bus. We arrived shortly in El Calafate, which, like so many other towns in Patagonia, just springs up after hours and hours of driving through barren wastelands comprised solely of pampas. The town itself is actually quite nice however, albeit a little touristy, and it was here that we decided we were to spend some days recharging our batteries after the busyness of the previous week. We walked from the bus station, up a bit of a hill to our hostel I Keu Ken which is just wonderful, nice and clean with friendly staff and a great atmosphere. We explored the town a little, had dinner and were in our dorm ready for bed and a nice relaxing next day of doing absolutely nothing…. WHEN, two new roomates - Johnno (English) and Tori (Aussie) - checked in to our room and asked us if we wanted to go into to the nearby Parque Nacional de Los Glaciares the following morning (from which El Calafate receives most of its tourism) sharing a rent-a-car and driving in super early to avoid paying the park fees. After a few seconds of thinking about having to get up at 5 in the morning (again!) we decided it was too good an offer to say no to, as not only would it give us more freedom to do what we wanted, but would also save us a LOT of money. So we excitedly went to bed, ready to check out a new glacier the next day!
Let's get Glacial!
So the next morning, we got organized and left the hostel at 6am to drive some 80kms to the showpiece of the park, Perito Moreno Glacier. The park itself has many glaciers, some of which are bigger than Perito Moreno, however, this one is the most famous for three reasons; one, it is one of the only glaciers in the area which is not retreating, two, it is the most easily accessible (for instance, by car/bus) and three, every so many years an interesting 'rupture' event occurs at the front of the glacier, akin to the bursting of a dam (those who are particularly interested can read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perito_Moreno_Glacier).
We arrived at the glacier at around 7:30am, and although it was still completely dark, we decided to make our way down to the boardwalk where at regular intervals there are balconies which look out onto to the face of the glacier from different angles and perspectives. As it gradually got lighter, we initially remarked how silent everything seemed, but not before long, we realized that the glacier was in fact very active. Every so often, you heard the incredibly loud cracks, almost like gunshots, and creaks and groans of the ever moving monolith, sometimes followed by a distant splash of a piece of a large piece of ice falling into the lake around the corner. Because of the arrow-head shape of the glacier, you can't see all sides of the face at the same time, and so sometimes the action is obscured from view. Before too long, however, we were lucky enough to see a very large piece break off and fall into the water just in front of us, creating a great series of ripples. The sheer hypnotic appeal of the glacier was amazing, and before we knew it, we had just been staring for around two hours. We ducked up to the (incredibly overpriced) café near the car park to take a quick breakfast, and then drove down to the wharf about a kilometer away, where we decided to take an hour long boat tour along one of the faces of the glacier, which was very interesting as we got to hear some detailed information, as well as see the glacier from a new perspective. However before we boarded the boat, Hayley discovered her ticket was no longer in her hands, but floating in lake next to the pier. Upon running up to one of the employees of the boat company to explain what had happened (en espanol!!), he produced an enormous harpoon, which looked like something Captain Ahab may have tried to use on Moby Dick, but which seemed to be expressly used for the purpose of fishing sodden tickets out of the water. This was received with rapturous applause by all the other passengers waiting on the wharf and a very red face from Hayley.
Later, we made our way back up to where we began, and spent a few more hours, enraptured by the magnificent 250 square kilometer formation. We stood for hours, staring and willing chunks of the glacier to crack off and plummet into the water below (Al Gore would not be impressed). We were told by a nearby Argentinean couple, in an example of the classic latino sense of humor, that the glacier did not understand English, and we needed to chant 'cae' Spanish for 'fall' J. We saw a lot more pieces fall into the lake, some of which looked 'small', but we were well aware of the fact that what looked small, may have in fact been the size of a car! It was quite difficult to obtain perspective, but at the same time, we still appreciated the enormity of everything. After lunch, we decided to call it a day at 2:30, amazed that we had spent 7 hours just staring at this enormous slab of compacted snow, completely entertained the whole time! We began the drive back out of the park (this time admiring the gorgeous scenery which we had missed in the dark on the way in) and after returning to our hostel, said our goodbyes to our new friends Tori and Johnno who were leaving that night/the following morning. We finished our night determined to spend the next day doing absolutely nothing! Not that staring at a glacier for seven hours was too intense!
Well that brings us to today. Tomorrow arvo we will be embarking on a looong 26 hour trip up to middle Argentina and a little hippie stronghold called El Bolson in the Lakes District where they live in harmony and grow fruits and make beer and cheese. Que Bueno! The only down side is we will spend almost our entire Easter weekend traveling!! We will miss the families and hot cross buns! Thanks for the readership guys and thank you very much for all the messages. Never fear people, I have not been abducted by a bear, that would just be Ryan going through his Joaquin Phoenix phase. The rap album is being released next week. Thanks for the footy news Tony, it really is music to my ears!!
Till next time, much love and hope the bunny visits you all this Easter.
Hayley and Ryan
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